River Oaks Golf Plantation

River Oaks Golf Plantation

Having undergone a $2.2 million renovation package that removed trees, updated bunkers and implemented Champion UltraDwarf greens, River Oaks Golf Plantation has increased play five-fold from several years back, and for good reason. Locals have returned to River Oaks in droves, taking advantage of the three nines – Bear, Otter and Fox – on the Gene Hamm and Tom Jackson design. The course recently received an overall rating of 5.8 from reviewers at Myrtle Beach Golf Insider, with even higher marks for staff, grill and pro shop.
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Having undergone a $2.2 million renovation package that removed trees, updated bunkers and implemented Champion UltraDwarf greens, River Oaks Golf Plantation has increased play five-fold from several years back, and for good reason. Locals have returned to River Oaks in droves, taking advantage of the three nines – Bear, Otter and Fox – on the Gene Hamm and Tom Jackson design. The course recently received an overall rating of 5.8 from reviewers at Myrtle Beach Golf Insider, with even higher marks for staff, grill and pro shop.

Those renovations are apparent, and they’ve added a playability factor here. The 4,600 or so trees that were removed opened up the course, and in burying some of the remaining stumps, it left a mounding effect on several of the holes, adding to the 6,300 yards (white tees) or 6,800 (championship tees) any combination of the three nines averages out to play. Players can pull out the driver on every par 4 and par 5 hole, and the openness of the course allows for a forgiving feel off the tee. No. 1 on Otter is a perfect example. The par-5, 524-yard hole has water lining the left of the fairway, but the landing area is wide and the a true roll can leave most average hitters going for the green on the second shot. The Fox nine opens in similar fashion. The 536-yard par 5 has one of the widest fairways on the course, before closing up near a green protected by four bunkers. The closing hole on Bear is true to that nine’s name. The 547-yard requires a monster tee shot before bending around a small lake on the approach.

Located just outside Myrtle Beach city limits off U.S. 501, River Oaks Golf Plantation sits just moments from the heart of the Grand Strand and Myrtle Beach International Airport.

Rank this course by selecting the stars below. Five stars if you loved the course, one if you hated it

Paul (Myrtle Beach, SC)

Ted (Myrtle Beach, SC)

Played Otter to The Bear Course. The Otter Nine is in good shape Tee to Green. The Bear Nine has many bad spots on most of the greens. Very challenging course especially with the high rough.

Peggy (South Bristol, NY)

07/31/2018

Great time!

Kyle (Indian Land, SC)

07/18/2018

Definitely great course for the price. They are working on a few of the greens, but overall course in great shape.

Anthony (Sahuarita, AZ)

05/08/2018

Course in decent shape. Friendly staff. Thanks

Stan (Mount Airy, North Carolina)

11/24/2017

We all enjoyed the round. Pro shop, snack bar and course staff were very friendly and professional. With tee choice the the layout is a challenging but not a grind for weekend players and a test for more skilled players. Had rained and course held up well. Greens are small but rolled smoothly. I will play again and recommend to friends.

Judy,

08/03/2015

This course is in horrible shape. Around the greens was the only place that had been watered. The fairways were like concrete, and the rough had clumps of crabgrass sticking out. It was like the maintenance crew was on vacation. Tee boxes were so hard I thought I would sprain my hand putting the tee in. Clubhouse is nothing to write home about. People were very rude. It was very disappointing, as when we booked it 2 weeks before, it had a 8.5 rating, and great reviews. Now, I wouldn't even give it a 4.

Bruce,

07/18/2015

Fun course. Conditions are very good for the price paid.

Kenneth (Apex, NC)

06/29/2015

Greens in awful shape ... played with my son who is 14 ...

Charles (Galloway, NJ)

05/06/2015

Pace of play was great.

Logan (Halifax, NS)

04/26/2015

I had a good experience and the staff was great.

Brian (Lillington, NC)

04/12/2015

Only good thing about River Oaks was the bag drop, the guy was very nice. Greens were in bad shape, pro shop had nothing and unfriendly. I would never go back even if it was free.

Philip (Lake Orion, MI)

03/19/2015

Enjoyed playing this course. It was in good condition.

Kevin (Myrtle Beach, SC)

06/02/2014

Course - especially the greens were in terrible condition. The course should not even be open - I am a local and likely will not be back anytime soon. I felt cheated of my money.

Carlos (Jasper, GA)

06/03/2013

Bunkers not maintained. Playing behind a fivesome. I did not like the manner in which I was ask if I wanted to join another party.

Cecil (Wilkesboro, NC)

10/10/2012

Average.

Bill,

07/19/2012

Played yesterday and would do so again. Great price to play a pretty challenging course with good fairways and generally good greens.

Mike (Waldorf, MD)

05/16/2012

Good staff, course condition bad.

Chris,

04/06/2012

Not bad for the money. Got a great deal on a platinum card. $55 for two rounds at River Oaks, and then significant savings at other affiliated courses for the remainder of the year. First 9 played the Otter 9. Tees were in really good shape, as were the fairways. Rough had not turned green yet, but greens already had a few burnt spots on them. Played the Bear 9 for the back. Again, tees and fairways were in good shape, but the greens had a lot of sand on most of them. Otter 9 was pretty wide open and not as challenging except for a couple of holes near the end that had pretty tough doglegs. Bear 9 was much tougher with more water and much tighter.

Peter,

James (Floral Park, N.Y.)

02/21/2012

Well maintained, very enjoyable.

Jerry,

10/26/2011

Not the worst course I have played. Greens and fairways were OK. Pace of play was slow, but could have been worse. Improvements appear to be in the works. I'll probably give River Oaks another shot in a year.

Ron (Charlottesville, Va.)

09/27/2011

Greens sand dressed with a dump truck! Made them hard to putt and lessened enjoyment especially in the rain. Putted sticky balls - they got larger the further they had to roll. Nice older-style course.

Barry (Greensboro, Md.)

06/28/2011

Course in good shape - enjoyable round - very limited yardage markers - had 150 in the fairway and sometimes we found the 100 marker - nothing on the sprinkler heads.

Rich,

05/16/2011

Cart path only when we played. Course does not drain well. No carts allowed to the range. Had to walk from parking lot (about 100 to 125-yard walk). Play extremely slow. No rangering going on at all. Should cost less for the quality.

John (New Windsor, N.Y.)

05/04/2011

Look, for the money not a bad course. Played this course on Sunday, May 1. People were very friendly.

Lloyd (Toms River, N.J.)

04/16/2011

Nice.

Patrick (Glenville, N.Y.)

07/12/2010

This course is an absolute value for the price. The course was in great shape and the staff was absolutely wonderful.

Art (Wilmington, Del.)

06/05/2010

The renovations to Fox + Otter removed a lot of trees and rebuilt the bunkers. The bunkers are very nice now. However, this is still a dumpy course, at the bottom end of MB. It might have some potential to get up to average, if they spend a lot more $. It's an OK course for a local's or sr. cheap rate, but don't bring your annual group there!

Michael (Holly Springs, N.C.)

05/05/2010

(No comments offered).

Gilles (Terrebonne, Quebec)

05/01/2010

Greens in poor condition, no indication to reach hole # 1 on the blue course, no starter and too many foursomes at same time on tee off.

Carl (Edgewater, Fla.)

11/11/2009

Over seeded & wet so most courses were cart path only. My party played 2 courses before I got there, Possum Trot & River Oaks. We will never go back to River Oaks. Very poor condition.

Alex (Anderson, S.C.)

10/10/2009

This was the worst round of golf I have ever played. Apparently, they had overbooked the course for some reason. Our tee time was scheduled for 1:30 but we got there early and were able to go a few minutes after 1. We played the first 4 holes in around 35 minutes, but when we got to hole number 5 we had to wait almost 20 minutes to tee off. Holes 5-9 took over 2 hours to play. That means that a round of golf at River Oaks would have taken me between 5 and 6 hours to finish. I was so disgusted about the idea of spending 6 hours on a course that I quit after the first 9. We then went into the clubhouse to see if there was anything we could do, maybe get a voucher or something to come back and play at a later time, but we were told that since we booked online we were not able to receive any help. The excuse we got when we went in was that it was the busiest day of the year. October 8th 2009 ... not Memorial Day, Labor Day, the 4th of July, or any other holiday. If they knew that this was the busiest day of the year, which I don't believe, shouldn't they have been prepared to handle the crowd? As a result of my experience I will never play at River Oaks again and since I can't get any help for any problem that I have because I book online, I will seriously think twice before I use this site again.

Jim (Monroe, N.C.)

09/22/2009

Course was in really poor shape. Not a course that I would ever play again.

Jose,

04/16/2009

Nice course.

Eric,

04/14/2009

The course was a pleasure to play, but the carts and the clubhouse need to be updated. Other than that we had a nice day. We would play again.

Frances,

03/21/2009

We found the River Oaks course to be in very rough shape - lots of brown spots and bare grass on the tee blocks and fairways. It had rained heavily a couple of days before we played - some of the sand traps were still full of water and the sand was packed and gritty in all the bunkers. There are too many hugh bunkers on the course - especially around the greens. Most of the greens are very small. All in all, we would rate this course a 3 out of 10.

Betty,

02/23/2009

Nice golf course. Need more restroom facilities.

Pete,

02/10/2009

Fun course & close to the airport. Our guys play there for the afternoon round as soon as we land. Don't go in expecting to play TPC Sawgrass, but it's a great little layout and good way to work the cobwebs off the game.

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